Get ready for a wild ride. Over his long career, John Shirley has earned his
reputation as a writer that doesn't pull his punches, and doesn't treat his
readers gently. In Extremis features more than twenty of Shirley's most intense
stories originally published in anthologies and periodicals like Asimov's
Science Fiction, Cemetery Dance, and New Noir. In addition, this volume contains
two never-before-published stories that are sure to roil the genre's most
hardened readers.

Contents

You Blundering Idiot, You Fucking Failed to Kill Me Again

Cram

Just Like Suzie

Just A Suggestion

The Exquisitely Bleeding Heads of Doktur Palmer Vreedeez

Cul-De-Sac

Gotterdammergun

"I Want to Get MArried," Says the World's Smallest Man

Faces in Walls

Learn at Home! Your Career in Evil!

Paper Angels on Fire

Call Girl, Echoed

You Hear What Buddy and Ray Did?

Smartbomber

Raise Your Hand if You're Dead

The Gun as an Aid to Poetry

Animus Rights

Skeeter Junkie

Tighter

Ten Things to Be Grateful For

Screw

REVIEWS:

'Shirley has moved far from his cyberpunk origins, something that quickly
becomes obvious as one moves through this collection of 22 stories. Some might
label theses tales splatterpunk, a more recent genre associated with Shirley,
but they'd be wrong. These stories, which cut into the human condition like a
coroner on acid, defy pigeonholing. The net result is one of the most
frightening books of fiction one may ever encounter. Most of the pieces concern
characters releasing personal demons or trying to stuff them back into the
darkness from whence they emerged. Nazis rub shoulders with abusive parents,
psychopaths of all colors and flavors ply their trades, while phantasmagorical
demons lurk in the wings. Continuing in the grand tradition of Dante, Shirley
leads the reader on a tour of the levels of hell, but it's an
all-too-recognizable, modern hell. Horror fans up for something that will scare
the living crap out of them need look no further.'
(Elliott Swanson)-- Booklist

'The extreme
nature of [Shirley's] work is found in his unflinching look into the dark realms
of the
human condition. Opening this book is like staring through one of the worst
peepholes you can imagine. There is no author working in the horror genre today
that does a better job of shining light on these horrors while maintaining a
moral center. Horrible and brutal things happen to many of the characters, but
Shirley does not mock or exploit the suffering of his characters, even in his
most outrageous and darkly funny pieces....Shirley has
taken great care to create a rhythm with the stories, which are, in turn,
comical, brutal, thoughtful and at times moving. Some highlights include "Cram",
the heartbreaking story of a bike messenger trapped in a subway during an
earthquake called 'Cram', the haunting ghost tale "Just a Suggestion", and the
hilarious "I Want to Get Married Says the World's Smallest Man". To me, the most
heartbreaking of all was the science fiction short "Call Girl Echoed". I read
"Call Girl Echoed" when it was first collected in the Anthology of Dark
Wisdom.
It is a story of technology and the horrible disconnect we are headed towards.
Shirley is a master at storytelling and at getting a message across without
preaching. Near the end of the collection is a powerful story called "Animus
Rights", which is worth the cover price alone....Shirley does an amazing job of
involving us in
characters you don't often see in horror fiction, like methheads, sex-workers,
and homeless junkies. For instance, "You Hear What Ray and Buddy Did" is about
bi-sexual junkies turning tricks and "Tighter" is about a single mom/prostitute
who has a john who never thinks he is close enough to dying during sex. "Just
Like Suzie" is just as gore-drenched as anything by Edward Lee, but this story
of a prostitute who dies while giving oral sex to a john is so disturbing that
it makes you cringe, and feel gross and awful for being amused at the same time.
I am not sure in all my years of reading horror I have been more uncomfortable
reading a single story....[Stephen] King's Skeleton Crew and Night
Shift contain some amazing examples
of a master short story writer's finest works. Take any of Barker's six Books
of
Blood and you could teach master classes on the short story. In
Extremis, is one of three John Shirley collections that rank that highly,
the
other two being Black Butterflies (which won the International Horror
Guild Award
and the Bram Stoker) and Living Shadows. Any serious student of the short
story
needs all three books on their shelf. (David Agranoff) -- MonsterLibrarian.com

'Focusing on Shirley's "extreme"
stories, many of which have undergone minor rewrites and been updated with
contemporary
references, the collection includes plenty of visceral horror and twisted
sensibilities while still valuing storytelling over shock. Shirley
is equally at home with redneck humor and irony ("You Blundering Idiot, You
Fucking
Failed to Kill Me Again"), old-school sci-fi twists ("Gotterdammergun"), and
graphic
horror ("Tighter"). All are told masterfully, especially the creepy and graphic
"Cul-de-Sac"'--Publishers
Weekly

'Extreme, as in the collection's title, means precisely that: Be
prepared for the profoundly weird, up close and personal; the excessively edgy
and eerie....Shirley's
tales deliver a wild and rewarding ride. Drugs, sex, and heightened emotions
drive the yarns. A pervasive sadness, born of resignation, is imbedded in the
core of the narratives. Yet there's feistiness within the forlornness, dwelling
in many of the hurt and hardened hearts. The author shrewdly philosophizes about
what motivates the lost and disenfranchised. While the endings may not be
considered happy in the conventional sense of the word, they suit the
complicated and sometimes comical credos of the characters. The author balances
the existential and elemental aspects of his creations with a keen eye for
belligerent behavior, and a wise whimsical sensibility of "What if?"...
John Shirley likes to play with what happens when push comes to shove. He enjoys
prodding and provocation. With In Extremis he ignites emotional powder kegs. The
22 stories gathered in this volume are severe and often sardonic. And satiating
in a deeply disturbing way.' (Sheila M. Merrit)--
Hellnotes